‘Betrayal’, Part 5

An arrest is made eight months after Deede's murder.

Dateline

This content comes from Closed Captioning that was broadcast along with this program.

>>>summer had come and gone in l.a.'s
south bay
without an arrest in the murder of beloved
el segundo
real estate agent deede
keller
. and as the months dragged on, detective jimmy gates kept pounding the pavement, building what he thought was a strong circumstantial case against
keller
's ex-husband
erwinhoward
, but the
l.a. county
d.a.'s office had so far declined to issue a warrant for
howard
's arrest. deede's son michael wanted answers. there was a long time when
erwin
was walking around free.

>>seemed like decades. it was so frustrating, painful, emotional.

>> reporter: jimmy gates was feeling all of those same things, and soon his hard work started paying off. that unusual
red tape
found on deede's body? a specially trained dog found
erwin
's scent on it. and detectives found similar tape at
erwin
's workplace, that
american airlines
hangar at l.a.x. but what about
erwin
's alibi, computer records showing him at work in that same hangar the night of deede's disappearance? and that he worked a ten-hour shift? it turned out the more detectives dug into that alibi, the less solid it seemed. detective gates painstakingly dissected the procedures at the hangar and he found this.
erwinhoward
could swipe in to work at the employee
parking lot
using a
key card
at this turnstile, then clock in inside the hangar, but he could also leave whenever he wanted by walking out the large bay doors and catching an employee shuttle back to the
parking lot
. there'd be no record of his leaving. jimmy gates discovered that on the night of the murder
erwin
used his
key card
to swipe in to the
parking lot
at
8:24 p.m
. and again at
10:21 p.m
. and for a third time at
1:47 a.m
., which completely blew apart his alibi that he'd been at work the whole time. so he would swipe his card to get back in?

>>absolutely.

>> reporter: after there was no record of his leaving.

>>right.

>> reporter: by now you're convinced
erwin
's the guy?

>>absolutely. all the witness, all the evidence, everything pointed directly at
erwin
.

>> reporter: and there was one more key piece of evidence. the day after the murder, a witness saw a mercedes on the street in
el segundo
. she thought it belonged to a friend, so sheped up to catch her.

>>she sees it's not her friend and she sees a male hispanic driving the car, and she remembers that
license plate
.

>> reporter: the
license plate
belonged to the mercedes owned by deede
keller
. the man driving, the witness helped the police artist draw this sketch. who does it look like?

>>it looks like
erwin
.

>> reporter: the witness was then shown a photo lineup, and she picked out
erwinhoward
. that's like lightning striking.

>>twice.

>> reporter: and then it struck again. six months after the murder, jimmy gates' phone rang. it was deede's next door neighbor who'd been interviewed once and had offered nothing of value, but now apparently she was having an attack of conscience. the neighbor now told the detective that she'd seen
erwin
on
june 30th
, the day
erwin
had confronted and slapped deede.

>>she said the conversation lasted 15 or
20 minutes
where he articulates that he was mad enough to strangle her with work gloves.

>> reporter: that's what deede neighbor said
erwin
said to her?

>>correct.

>> reporter: why do you think she didn't tell you for six months?

>>i have no idea why a neighbor during a murder investigation just wouldn't simply tell the cops the truth, he wanted to kill her.

>> reporter: armed with that new and threatening statement, detective gates was able to get his warrant and soon
erwinhoward
was under arrest for the murder of deede
keller
. now the case was in the hands of
l.a. county
deputy district attorney john lumer. what made this case different?

>>i love cases where you have a very good idea who the suspect is, but it's a question of kind of putting the evidence together. so circumstantial cases where you have high motive, but you're looking at lots of little facts and seeing, okay, what can you turn this into?

>> reporter: it would take three years for the case against
erwinhoward
to come to trial. cameras were not present in the courtroom that day when trial began in the fall of
2008
.
john lewin
laid out his case in a devastatingly thorough 2 1/2-hour-long
powerpoint presentation
to the jury.

>>opening statements
are like a check. i'm writing a check. jury hears it. and if i do my job right after opening, all they're waiting to see is if there are funds in the bank.

>> reporter: in other words, if you deliver during your case what you say you're going to deliver in the
opening statement
, you'll get a conviction.

>>that's my hope.

>> reporter: but never in this prosecutor's
wildest dreams
did he believe his
opening statement
would have the effect it did on
erwinhoward
and his
defense attorney
andrew flyer. you hear that
opening statement
and something changes.

>>something changed. after the
opening statement
, i went back into lockup and i spoke to
erwin
, and i said, hey, listen, remember how i was speaking about the circumstantial case and it could be powerful, i think there could be some problems now. and his answer was, i need to tell you something.

>> reporter: that something would stun deede
keller
's family and friends and the prosecutor himself.

>>one of the most shocking things i've ever seen in one of my cases in